Sticker love.

September 4, 2012

When I was a kid I used to collect stickers, just like any normal kid did. I loved my stickers, they were so important to me. I would literally carry my albums with me to school and back every day so that at lunch I could make some swopsies. These things were like pieces of sticky gold.

Now I loved all my stickers, I had fuzzy ones, glow in the dark ones, shiny ones, neon ones, ones that smelt like lemon when you scratched them (remember those?). I had material ones, glittery ones, big ones, puffy ones. I loved them all BUT my most favourite one was a puffy sticker of Garfield wearing a t-shirt that said Bad. Holy crap I loved this sticker. It used to sit on a page of it’s own and I wouldn’t swop it for anything. It was my pride and joy. I don’t know what it was about it but it meant the world to me. Ahaa.

Anyway yesterday I was cleaning out my passage cupboard and I came across 2 of my sticker books. They bought back such cool memories and when I held old Garfield in my hand I could still remember how happy this puffy piece of paper made me feel. I know this sounds weird, but it’s the truth.

Do some of you guys still have your sticker collections or are you reading this and thinking I’m as nuts as a bar of peanut brittle?

I also thought I would show you what I did with some of my wobbly eyed stickers for an exhibition a few years ago. I made a cooooo-lage out of them. I took some of most favourite ones from my album and then built a pattern all around of them.

I also made a few out of novelty erasers, novelty buttons and one out of some original band badges that I still had from when I was a kid. I wanted to make a badge one but realised I didn’t have enough pins, then Shane and I came across this crazy shop in Pretoria called Gabbie’s Disco that still had all sorts of things that were literally from the 80’s. Turn-up Micky Mosue jeans (we bought a pair, obviously), Reeboks, LA Gear, stone washed denims and jackets, coloured jeans. It was like you were in 1981 trying to decide what to spend your hard earned pocket money one. They had these pins too, which were exactly like the ones I had kept all these years. So I got to make a band pin coooo-lage and the only new band pin I popped in was a Desmond and The Tutus one, because they rule.

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Hi – silly questions that has nothing to do with stickers! Where did you get your white box frames? Mr Price had some a few months ago and I bought one – and I’m now kicking myself for not buying more since I can’t find them ANYWHERE! And if you say you bought them at IKEA I’m going to have to have a little weep 🙂 Thanks!

Hahah I totally had the same stickers as you, actually I still have them…somewhere in a box. They where my pride and joy, I would have done anything for some of yours. Stickers and marbles where the business. I wander what kids swap now?

Oh my god, I so remember mine! In fact, I even remember my foray into the world of stickers- so desperate to get in on the exchanging act but lacking a book, I used a notebook for mine. Yeah, it did not go so well, nor was I apparently the brightest kid. The novelty ones like the multi-colour glitter unicorns and glow-in-the-dark Tweety Birds and furry zoo animals were my favourites.
Funny enough, my boyfriend (or ex now) and I stopped in at one of these Woolworths food shops at a petrol station for something, and they must have some kind of a promotion going on because the cashier asked him “Do you collect stickers?” which sent me on about an hour tear about how awesome that is as a question, and I how I still have my sticker book somewhere at home, and how he should have asked her if she knew how to french-braid hair so we could start a club at recess or something. It was a happy hour for me.
I wonder if young ‘uns today still do this? I mean obviously stickers are still ubiquitous and all that, but I wonder if the collecting of them and the swapping of them is still the culture it used to be and still holds the kind of cache it did. It’d be a simultaneous shame if that’s passed into obscurity and also kind of cool if it’s something we slightly older kids get to keep now as an obsolete nostalgia-ism.

PhilliSeptember 4, 2012 at 1:14 pm

Oh man! looking at those troll stickers just took me waaay back. I used to love collecting stickers. It was the best. I wish I still had my albums.

The smelly stickers were amazing, and such a treat if you could find them in the shops. I think I used to spend just about my whole “Sunday Sweets” money on stickers.

This is BEYOND creepy!! I had all those stickers too! Sjoe, a tsunami of memories just came flooding back… WHOOSH! Hello 1992.

LauraSeptember 4, 2012 at 3:58 pm

I still have my sticker books too! I remember how intense swapping them during break at school was! It was this whole business deal – “I’ll give you this furry one and this Hello Kitty one for your giraffe one!!” haha those were the days. If only stickers were still all I had to worry about

this is awesome. your collage is boss status and i can’t believe you had the self control to not peel so many of those off and stick them somewhere!! i loved puffy stickers the best and i actually loved the smell of them the most. i still have some sticker pieces of art and they still have that vinyl smell. love it

Aaah awesome! I remember being in one of those seaside shops in Durban with my mom, the ones who sold those little baskets of shells and nets and whatever else, and my mom told me that i could either get a sticker book or a pack of furry stickers- i couldn’t have both. So i took the sticker book. I recently also found my old sticker books in my cupboard while moving- it’s just something you can’t throw away!

KateSeptember 5, 2012 at 12:00 am

I love this so much! A part of me wishes I still had my stickers, though I do still have tons of Duran Duran badges. There are ones here I would totally buy too…

Oh my goodness…this brings back so many memories! I am sure I had the same colourful troll stickers! I wish I still had my collection…
Also, I love the band pin collage idea… I have a ton of those lying around:)

Wow! What a blast from the past. This post had me falling off my chair! I had SO many stickers that you did in photo albums as well. Ah to be young and awesome again!

Thank you for the walk down memory lane.

PaulaSeptember 5, 2012 at 9:24 pm

Haha, CNA had such a limited selection! I remember that glow-in-the-dark teddy with a heart glowing next to my bed every night with such happiness… And the fluffy giraffes! Wish I still
Had mine 🙁 good times!